Pilates With A Twist: With Becky Britchford
I call my classes ‘Pilates with a Twist’. The Twist is that it is no longer a ‘traditional’ Pilates class. I taught what I would call ‘traditional’ Pilates for a good 5 years before I started to tweak and alter it as a result of what I was learning about the body from various teachings, particularly AiM (Anatomy in Motion). The ‘Twist’ element has been fully integrated for about the last 9 years.
The classes are playful, and the aim is to encourage respect for the body, learn more about it, remember how to enjoy moving and increase the movement repertoire of the body whilst, at the same time, accessing the benefits of strength, balance, suppleness and pain reduction.
The classes are kept small – usually no more than 8 people – and no-one is left behind or left out. They are very friendly and inclusive. There can be a large mix of abilities, but everyone works to their own level and I can always find a way to make a move more difficult, or easier, when necessary. The majority of the people I work with come to me with issues such as pain and/or stiffness.
The first class is a free taster. My classes do not follow school term times and continue to run through the holidays.
“Changing our bodies to improve their perceived imperfections, or to please others, can see us trapped in a never-ending cycle. An alternative option is not to change our bodies –
but rather to change the way we feel about them.”
Andrew Barnes – Awakening Within
My aim is to help people to:
- Feel better about their bodies.
- Learn to respect the fact that these bodies are always doing their best, despite the awful ways we treat them most of the time.
- Better understand how their body really functions and dismiss many of the myths that we have been led to believe for decades.
- Realise that exercise can be a fun and enjoyable part of everyday life, rather than being painful, repetitive, boring or requiring special equipment or a special location.
So, coming back to the quote above, my work can not only change the way you feel about your body, but also change the way your body looks and moves, so that the whole package of you as a person is happier and healthier.
Freedom and Mastery, rather than Control
I feel that once we let go of trying to ‘control’ our bodies, fluidity and ease of movement can start to return, and with them enjoyment in movement.
The more movement ‘options’ our body can access, the more pain-free, mobile, vital and strong it will look and feel. However, our modern lifestyles and habits tend to limit the body’s opportunities to access this freedom of movement. Pilates with a Twist aims to rectify this by re-introducing the body to as many forgotten options as possible.
Each part of the body is deeply connected with every other part – internal organs included. When moving naturally and healthily, all the elements of the body will work and move together, rather than in isolation.
You can experience this link between the different parts of the body for yourself in my classes.
I have a repertoire of over 100 exercises to keep your body happy, healthy, strong, and mobile, so you won’t get bored.
Pilates with a Twist is…
- All about you and your body in that moment, on that day – understanding and respecting the changes that occur in us as a result of what’s going on in our lives.
- It’s about noticing what is going on in your body as you move.
- About coaxing the body into a new world view – one that is more free and able to tap into more potential. It is not about control. The more we can create a dialogue with our body and learn to understand it, the easier it is to live and work with it.
- About reconnecting you with your body after pain, injury or surgery.
Please contact me to book a place or find out more:
You can contact me on movewiththought@gmail.com or 07970 022101. You can also visit my website here.